The Red Rose Fox
by Ziggurat Rolsovitch
Summary: No Summary.


Disclamier; I don't own the X-Files. duh.

XXXX

Scully sighed as she held the letter in her hands. She considered it and then sighed and tossed it in the trash. She could not invite Mulder. It would be too much. Especially after what happened. She left. She had destroyed all their trust when she simply left a note and left.  
She couldn't invite him to her wedding. It would make it so much worse after not talking to him in so long. She missed him every day though. Then she began to feel the tears in her eyes, things were so complicated now.  
Mrs. Scully watched her daughter throw away the letter and watched her wipe the tears. She knew about what had happened and knew how much her daughter missed that silly man. Truth be told she missed Fox Mulder herself. He was like a son to her. He remembered when Dana had left; Mulder had come to the door with the letter in hand begging her to tell him where Dana had gone. As much as she wanted to she couldn't betray the trust her daughter had placed in her, but now… well… she couldn't help but get involved. It was a very hard choice.

Fox Mulder stumbled into his apartment, totally smashed. The bruises on his face and ribs hurt like hell from that bar fight he had just gotten into. The damn bartender couldn't stop him from his drinking, he just grabbed some vodka and orange juice from the fridge, but before he could even finish filling the glass (Spilling vodka all over the table on the way) he lost all of what he had drank on the floor.

Gasping in a few gulps of air, he backed against the wall and wiped his mouth with his sleeve before he blacked out.  
Light streamed through the blinds as AD Skinner knocked on the door. When he got no answer, he sighed and opened the door, finding Mulder passed out (once again) on the floor. Skinner sighed and kneeled next to his Agent's body. His face covered by a scruffy beard, it showed the AD that his Agent was not taking very good care of himself.  
"Jesus, Mulder."  
"Unh…" He whined.  
"What the hell is wrong with you?"  
"Everything." Sitting up Mulder winced and gripped his side.  
"That's it. We're going to the hospital, like it or not." Skinner picked up Mulder carefully, pulled his arm across his shoulder, and led him out of the apartment. Surprisingly he got no protest. Apparently, Mulder was still drunk.

Skinner waited in the room with Mulder. Though he was sobering up he was still not totally there, holding the right lower side of his stomach and wincing. The doctor walked in the room looking at his clipboard, closing the door absently behind him. He then sighed and looked up.  
"Well," The doctor said. "Mr. Mulder, I'm afraid I have some bad news."  
"Joy." Mulder remarked sarcastically.  
"Your liver is failing. If you don't stop drinking then your liver will fail totally and then I'm afraid there's nothing we'll be able to do for you." The doctor tore off a paper from his clipboard and handed it to Skinner. "I will prescribe some medication that will help with the pain and may partially restore some of the liver functioning, but you still need to stop the drinking."

Skinner pulled up to Mulder's apartment and let him out. Then he picked up the paper that doctor had given Mulder.  
"You're not going to take these?"  
"No." Mulder answered and closed the car door. He went up to his apartment. He grabbed the mail and headed up. He shifted through some bills then grabbed a bottle of vodka, drinking it straight. He was totally disobeying the doctor's orders. The truth was… he wanted to die. He had nothing left; he pulled out the letter from the drawer of his desk and read over it for the millionth time. It had stains of beer on it still from when he first began drinking. He wondered what he had done wrong.

_Dear, Mulder  
I am sorry I can no longer continue on this journey with you. All we have done is fight and I have decided to go and let you work. Don't give up Mulder, stay strong and keep working on the X-Files. You don't need me and I want you to find what you have been looking for. I know you said you couldn't do it without me, but you did it years before without a partner and you can do it again. Please promise you will save your work. Never back down, never give up and keep yourself alive._

-Scully  


He took a big swallow of the drink, but dropped it from his shaking hands along with the letter and his mail. He swore under his breath, shifted through the papers, and found a rather fancy letter in the mix.  
"Well this doesn't belong here." He said softly to himself as he pulled apart the soaking paper and reveled a letter. He gasped softly. Scully… is getting married? Life had literally just become a living hell.

Skinner had checked in on Mulder again who was once again passed out drunk. Rehab was becoming a very strong consideration. He gathered up the mail and then found the letter. Uh-oh. This would certainly make Mulder's problems worse.  
Gasping and jerking awake he saw his boss reading the letters. He had lost his job because of his drinking and Skinner had been helping pay his bills, although he had told him not to.  
"Wow. I hadn't intended on hearing from her ever again." Skinner commented slowly.  
"I want to go." Mulder said quickly. "Will you take me?" He had also lost his drivers license.  
"I don't think it would be a good idea."  
"Just…. I don't care."  
"Mulder, no."  
"Please!" He begged.

Scully sat in her room getting ready. There was a knock at the door and she stood and straightened the dress. White of course.  
"Come in." She called. Her mother came in slowly.  
"Dana," She said. "Why didn't you invite Fox?"  
"Mom… how many times do we have to go through this?"  
"But, why, Dana? He was your friend. I know he cared about you very much."  
"I just couldn't handle seeing him again, seeing the… betrayal in his eyes, seeing the hurt."  
"He may be very hurt, but I don't think he'd picture it as betrayal."  
"It doesn't matter. It is too late anyway. I'm getting married to Al in a few hours." She looked at herself in the mirror and did not see a happy bride there, just a sad one.

Well… he was here, at the wedding, but realizing he could even see her anymore made him change his mind, he walked into a back room and pulled his revolver from his holster. Nobody would notice until the janitor came to clean out the back bedroom of this huge mansion and by then she would be gone and have her wedding. He swallowed hard and cocked the gun.

She couldn't sit in this room any longer and snuck out, but in the hallway, she had run into someone she never thought she would see again.  
"Skinner?"  
"Scully?"  
"Sir… w-what are you doing here?"  
"I uh… I uh…. well…. I… was here to… congratulate you." He thought up quickly. He couldn't tell her Mulder was here.  
"Thank you." She said. "It's good to see you again."  
"Same here."  
"H-how… how is he?" She couldn't help, but ask. When she saw the look Skinner had, she knew the answer would not be a good one. "No…"  
"H-he…. He isn't good. In fact… I've never seen him like this. They shut down the X-Files a few weeks after you left because Mulder was falling behind. He wasn't the same without you and now that he doesn't even have the X-Files."  
"That bad? I-I didn't know."  
"It isn't your fault."  
"God… it is my fault… I should see him. Does he still live in the same place?"  
"Scully… take my advice… you don't want to do that. He drinks a lot."  
"How much is a lot?"  
"He's an alcoholic. I have tried to get him to quit, but I cannot watch him. He has always needed someone to watch him. Someone who could handle him. I don't think anyone, but you could. I really can't remember the last time I saw him sober."  
"I um… I was going to take a walk."  
"Yes… I was looking for your mother by the way."  
"She's with the girls."  
"Oh, of course." Skinner said and set off to find Mrs. Scully. He suspected that woman had more to do with this since Scully did not seem to know Mulder was there.

After hearing this, she really needed a walk to think about things. She opened the door and gasped loudly. The room was dark, but she had enough light from the moon to see he had a gun to his head.  
"Wait… this isn't what it looks like." He said as he stumbled back and set the gun on a counter.  
"It's alright, it's alright. Just relax... nothing happened." She said softly.  
"I wasn't going to do it I swear."  
"I know." She had to keep him calm. He was panicking. She walked over to the balcony and looked down. She knew how this person felt about now. "I've made some mistakes I wish I hadn't."  
"Sc…" He cleared his throat. Not yet. "Sure can't tell." He covered it up nicely.  
"I had a friend… I miss him and I talked to someone who told me he wasn't doing well."  
"Oh."  
"I left him. I'm sure he thinks I betrayed him." She listened to silence.  
"Ohh… I'm sure he doesn't think that at all. In fact I'm sure there are other things he considers far more devious then that."  
"You don't know him."  
"Actually… I know him pretty well." She turned around quickly and searched for a light, but felt him right there in front of her. "Don't. Not, yet. Give me one quick chance."  
Consideration. Hadn't she had enough of that? Apparently not. She turned on the light and he blinked, trying to adjust to the bright lights.  
"Mulder…?" She took in his appearance. He was pretty scruffy, but he had taken the time to actually clean up and wear a tux. "It's really you?"  
"Maybe." He answered absently. She could see a difference in him. He didn't have that same spark in his eyes as he did when he was younger. Had she done this? Had she really taken that away by leaving him? If she had known this would have happened then she wouldn't have left him there all alone. She knew Skinner's words were true. Mulder did need someone to watch over him. It had been a hard choice to leave, but she did. They had been fighting that whole time during their last year together. She had thought it was what was best, but apparently, it was a mistake.  
He needed her more then she had thought. He was such a mess now.  
"I'm so sorry, Mulder." She whispered and softly hugged him.  
"For what?" His voice was equally soft. He didn't understand.  
"If I hadn't left then you wouldn't have lost the X-Files. You wouldn't be this way."  
"No… Scully…" He sighed and hugged her tighter. "They were out to get me. The X-Files were marked anyway." She pulled him down and kissed him softly then resting her head against his. He exhaled slowly. Things were over he knew. "I better go." He pulled back and she was reluctant to let him go, but did finally as he walked away.

Sitting in his apartment, he swallowed hard. Then looking at the picture of them at a FBI calibration… he wondered why. They looked happy enough together, but if she had been happy with him she wouldn't have left.  
He gasped as he held his lower right side. His liver was failing on him, but it didn't matter. He poured another drink, picked up the two little white pills, and threw them in. he couldn't take the damn aspirin straight. It was strong stuff and would surly make the pain stop. For a while anyway until he had to do it all again the next morning.  
But the knock at the door interrupted him. Skinner he thought and got up and answered. He was not disappointed, but then Skinner sighed and stepped out of the way and there was Scully… he swallowed.  
"I'll… uh… I'll leave you two alone." Skinner said as he walked away.  
"Uh-oh." He said quietly. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be getting married?"  
"Call me crazy, but… I ran away."  
"You what? What?"  
"You're the psychologist. Figure it out." She looked him over. "Or are you too drunk?"  
"I only had one." He said defensively. "Never mind." With one loud sigh he looked around his messy apartment and then behind her into the hallway. He stepped side so she could come inside, but as she as he closed the door she gripped him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him down, he kissed her not concerned or caring what the consequences were.  
"Mulder…" Though call… though call, but she had to say it. "I love you." She heard his sharp intake of breath and he quickly met her eyes, searching for the truth.  
"If that's the truth then lets leave."  
"What?"  
"Let's leave. Go somewhere. Get out of DC and start again. I'll even stop drinking I promise."  
"You'll stop drinking?" She asked and he nodded. She knew about the doctor. Skinner told her what the man had told them. She knew that his liver could regenerate if he quit. "Deal. Where are we going?"  
"Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know."  
"Wherever you want."  
"Where ever I want?" She asked.  
"Yeah." He smiled softly.  
"Alright…" She had a pretty good idea of where they could go. Therefore, they packed and left for the destination.

END  
where is the place? I don't know. Just whatever places you could imagine. Maybe Italy, maybe its France, maybe it is Mexico. I don't know. What ever sounds nice.


End file.
